Roxie
shook her head in exasperated fondness and sat down in front of Manny’s
desk. She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “So, the new boss
starts today?”

“Yep,” Manny replied absently, reviewing the e-mails in her inbox.

“Are you going to be okay with this? I mean, you–”

“Of
course I’m okay with it. Steph’s a nice person, bright, energetic,
competent, levelheaded, full of new ideas. She may have a bit of a
learning curve ahead of her, but she’ll do just fine. She may be just
what we need around here. Perk us up a bit.”

“Yeah, but you–”

Manny
took her hands off the keyboard and turned to face Roxie directly. She
gave her a reassuring smile and calmly held her gaze.

“I’m
okay with it,” she said. “Really. I didn’t want to be the boss anyway.”
She paused then continued. “Everything’s going to be fine. You’ll see. A
new boss will be fun!”

Roxie grimaced cynically and Manny shook her head in mock disapproval.

“We should get to work,” she urged gently.

Roxie nodded and stood. “Yeah, that at least never changes. But Manny…”

Manny raised a quizzical eyebrow.

“It should’ve been you.”

For
the last fifteen years, Rose “Manny” Mankowski has been a very good
girl. She turned her back on her youthful fancies and focused on her
career. But now, at the age of 45, she’s questioning her choices and
feeling more and more disconnected from her own life. When she’s passed
over for promotion and her much younger new boss implies Manny’s life
will never change, something snaps. In the blink of an eye, she’s quit
her job, sold her house and cashed in her pension, and she’s leaving
town on a six month road trip.

After
placing a personal ad for a travelling companion, she’s joined in her
mid-life crisis by Zeke Powell, the cynical, satirical, most-read – and
most controversial – blogger for the e-magazine, What Women Want. Zeke’s
true goal is to expose Manny’s journey as a pitiful and desperate
attempt to reclaim her lost youth – and increase his readership at the
same time. Leaving it all behind for six months is just an added bonus.

Now,
armed with a bagful of destinations, a fistful of maps, and an
out-spoken imaginary friend named Harvey, Manny’s on a quest to
rediscover herself – and taking Zeke along for the ride.